Julia Hawthorne
Mr. Bender
Survey British Literature
10 May 2016 Wife of Bath: Tragic Love Stories
In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces the Wife of Bath as someone who strives for sovereignty over her husband. The tale which the Wife of Bath later narrates is appropriate because it captures her exact intentions: women wanting dominance over their husbands.
Throughout history, women have struggled to have a place in male dominant societies, particularly in the fourteenth century. The most compelling and unrestricted character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is the Wife of Bath. One can make this assumption because she is far from a typical woman of her time. A typical women of the Middle Ages main ambition …show more content…
One can see that she is an independent, loyal but deceiving woman. She shows her independent trait through her successful weaving business, which also shows how she will not bow down to male order. (Howard par. 1-3) In addition, she also gets remarried five times, after each of her husband’s deaths. She deceives each of her husband's in different ways in order to gain control of each of her …show more content…
In result of being well off in this business, she wore finer clothing that costed more. A typical woman of this time chose to either make her own clothing, as the Wife does, or buy cheaply made material. But, As shown in the quote above, she is dominant amongst both genders in her independent business which is yet another uncommon characteristic for a woman of this time. “During the middle ages, European women had very few choices when it came to maintaining a livelihood for themselves.” (Rossignol 386). Although women commonly depended on men for survival, this quote is just another example of how the Wife of Bath is an independent, dominant woman of her time. Women, like the Wife of Bath, who were wealthy and high power, were able to afford the “latest fashions.. Including furs and brocades made only of the finest material.” (Newman 93). The wealth of her weaving company also helped her to accompany many on religious pilgrimages. Chaucer shows through these lines that the Wife of Bath was able to be present on these journeys because she felt she lived a moral
Mr. Bender
Survey British Literature
10 May 2016 Wife of Bath: Tragic Love Stories
In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces the Wife of Bath as someone who strives for sovereignty over her husband. The tale which the Wife of Bath later narrates is appropriate because it captures her exact intentions: women wanting dominance over their husbands.
Throughout history, women have struggled to have a place in male dominant societies, particularly in the fourteenth century. The most compelling and unrestricted character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is the Wife of Bath. One can make this assumption because she is far from a typical woman of her time. A typical women of the Middle Ages main ambition …show more content…
One can see that she is an independent, loyal but deceiving woman. She shows her independent trait through her successful weaving business, which also shows how she will not bow down to male order. (Howard par. 1-3) In addition, she also gets remarried five times, after each of her husband’s deaths. She deceives each of her husband's in different ways in order to gain control of each of her …show more content…
In result of being well off in this business, she wore finer clothing that costed more. A typical woman of this time chose to either make her own clothing, as the Wife does, or buy cheaply made material. But, As shown in the quote above, she is dominant amongst both genders in her independent business which is yet another uncommon characteristic for a woman of this time. “During the middle ages, European women had very few choices when it came to maintaining a livelihood for themselves.” (Rossignol 386). Although women commonly depended on men for survival, this quote is just another example of how the Wife of Bath is an independent, dominant woman of her time. Women, like the Wife of Bath, who were wealthy and high power, were able to afford the “latest fashions.. Including furs and brocades made only of the finest material.” (Newman 93). The wealth of her weaving company also helped her to accompany many on religious pilgrimages. Chaucer shows through these lines that the Wife of Bath was able to be present on these journeys because she felt she lived a moral